Local Nonprofit, The Shalom Project, Helping Families In Financial Distress

A local nonprofit is holding its annual “Big Chill” fundraiser this weekend to support its mission. The Shalom Project in Winston-Salem provides food, clothing, and shelter for people in need. They rely on food donations from local grocers, clothing drop-offs from community members, and volunteers to make it happen. On Tuesdays, the Clothing Closet and Food Pantry open their doors, and on Wednesday evenings they set the Welcome Table with free nutritious dinners for all who are hungry cooked by a local chef and served by volunteer waiters.

Program Director Jeffrey Dean Foster says every week they serve between 40-60 meals.

“It's just a totally free community supper at Green Street [church]. We have a great chef, Joy Martin, that makes every meal taste great. And we have people that wait on everyone so that when they come and sit down they feel like they're actually being taken care of and feel special. And that's manned by a team of volunteers and some of them have been doing it forever. It's a slick operation.”

For the past fifteen years, The Shalom Project has also provided health care and pharmaceutical services. Their Medical Clinic helps people in all types of situations – from the homeless to the employed and recently unemployed unable to pay for even basic health services. Once a week, volunteer nurses, doctors and pharmacists typically see between 60-80 patients. Foster says it's a team effort.

“We try to have at least 3-4 doctors every night,” says Foster. “They're from all over: Baptist, Novant, Forsyth, in and out of the city, and some of the nurses have been with us for ten to fifteen years. And it's just like a M.A.S.H. unit. It's kind of chaotic, and hot and sweaty sometimes, but it's great. Everybody is really pitching in, and even the patients themselves pitch in, and watch out for each other and help us running patients from here to there. So, it is a communal thing. I think it's valuable in that. Even if we were giving out placebos it would be valuable.”

Forsyth County ranks among the worst in the country for food insecurity and upward mobility, fueling the intense need for organizations like the Shalom Project. That's the idea behind their annual fundraising event: The Big Chill. It involves local celebrities sitting on blocks of ice, frantically dialing people they know to pledge to the cause, eventually meeting their individual dollar goals, and stepping off the frozen ice. The Shalom Project is based in the Green Street church in Winston-Salem and their medical group and pharmacy are located downtown.